Forms

I like writing poetry much more when I have a prescribed form to follow, so I’ve been playing with different forms lately. This may or may not be the first villanelle I’ve ever written. My wife and I are expecting our first child, a son, in May. This one’s for New Guy.

NEW GUY’S VILLANELLE

We will give you all that we are ablethough so much is left outside of our control.Soon you’ll take your own seat at the table.

We both know that soon this very day willfall to memory, etchings on a scroll.We will give you all that we are able.

Giving hope: for other days to wait till,not knowing what they’ll overlap or hold.Soon you’ll take your own seat at the table.

We know not how long your lungs will stay filledor what you’ll say about us when you’re old;we will give you all that we are able.

I imagine something brimming, something stable,something glowing with an ember never cold…soon you’ll take your own seat at the table

We can’t wait to meet you, let’s just say we’llnever be the same (or so we’re told).We will give you all that we are able –soon you’ll have your own seat at the table

I believe that this is the first sestina I’ve ever written, and, I have discovered since, not a true sestina. Oh well. The end result is maybe a bit overly philosophical and plodding, but the process was pretty fun. Common and Very Common Nouns courtesy of Random Word Generator.

SICKBED SESTINA

What does a half-filled glass of water represent?What trite and useless lesson might it teach?And can such aphorisms save a manor woman’s beating shipwrecked heart enoughto buoy it toward something more complex?Can mystery and meaning join with plot?

Those who’ve read the ending, know the plot,and can decode what symbols represent,(the ones that are straightforward, not too complex)and these we might well count upon to teachus something – not quite all but quite enoughabout the heart of woman and of man.

And who am I in all of this? A manwho ruminating on it hatched a plotto etch the glass’s midpoint just enoughthat drinkers decide what drops do representand maybe then they’ll all decide to teachlessons arid, waterlogged, complex.

For is life empty? Full? A complexof organisms making up a manor woman waiting for the thing to teachor data points that we forgot to plot?Hold the film up to the light and representit in reverse and see if it’s enough.

Tip the water over, then we’ll teachthe lesson of having had more than enoughof forced compliance with a placid plotof fearing the blurred edges and complexparadoxes intrinsic in each manand woman with all they represent.

This man hopes to muddle through a plotat once complex and never quite enoughto represent what he could never teach.

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BIO

Daniel Muro LaMere is a teacher and writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He writes about music at thisistheshuffler.wordpress.com.

ABOUT

Most of what appears here is poetry, with some essays and other writings. All work should be considered the intellectual property of Daniel Muro LaMere and copyrighted as such. The author knows zero about intellectual property law, but is married to an attorney, so watch it.